Haunted
by sketchingserendipity
Summary: Something is after Danny's classmate, and it's driving her crazy. Will Danny be able to defeat it even though he doesn't know what it is? And is the new ghost in town really as harmless as she claims to be?
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

In the hallways of Amity Park High School, a raven-haired, blue-eyed 9th grader dug around in his locker, his brow furrowed.

A freshman girl dressed mostly in black walked up to him. "Hey Danny. How's it going?" she inquired.

"Oh, it's going great," the frustrated boy replied, his voice tinged with sarcasm. "I forgot to do my math homework. That always makes for the best day." He stopped rummaging around in his locker as a thought crossed his mind. "I might be able to do it second period, though. Do you have the assignment, Sam?" He looked up at the girl hopefully.

She winced. "Uh, not for _your_ class' homework…"

"Oh, that's right," Danny said dryly. "You're in the _honors_ class now. If you'll excuse me, I have to find someone else who's bad at math." He slammed his locker door shut and started down the hall.

Sam watched him go, put off by his bad mood. Then, shaking her head, she turned around and headed to her first period class.

'Now, who's in my class?' Danny thought to himself, scanning the hallway for a classmate. 'Tucker is in Iowa visiting his grandparents. Dash might pound the crud out of me just for reminding him that he's repeating geometry a third time. Hmm…'

Suddenly, he caught sight of another freshman girl, this one with shoulder-length reddish-blonde hair and blue-green eyes. She wore a dark pink T-shirt with a light blue tank over it, jeans, and purple Converse. Her colorful ensemble reflected her vibrant personality. She was creative and artistic, as the sketches and photos plastered to her open locker door would suggest.

'Hayley! She's in my class, and she won't beat me up. I think.' He walked over to the girl, who was putting things from her locker into her forest green backpack.

"Hayley?" She didn't respond, but simply continued to pull books out of her locker, a troubled look on her face.

"Hayley," Danny repeated, a little louder. Still, she didn't seem to hear him, though he was standing right next to her. Finally, he almost yelled, "Hayley!" while reaching out and touching her shoulder.

She whirled around to face him, terror in her eyes. She relaxed slightly when she realized it was only him, but still seemed nervous.

"Are you okay?" Danny inquired, pulling back his hand. As soon as she had turned around, his ghost sense started going off like crazy. This never used to happen around Hayley. What about her had changed in the past couple weeks? He covered his mouth, trying to hide from view the blue mist escaping his lips.

"Yeah, sure, I'm fine," Hayley said harshly. She took a deep breath. "Did you want something?"

"Just the math homework," Danny replied, feeling a bit indignant from her rude reception. His hand still hovered in front of his mouth.

Hayley stopped short. "There was math homework?" She asked apprehensively.

"Uh, yeah," Danny said raising an eyebrow, "Are you sure you're okay?" He sat next to Hayley in biology, and she was usually pretty on top of her schoolwork. According to her, her parents had told her the only way they would pay for her art lessons was if she consistently made the honor roll.

"Yes, I'm fine." Hayley snapped. She zipped up her backpack, slammed her locker shut, muttered "Bye," and walked away.

Danny's ghost sense gradually slowed down as she stalked off, and stopped completely when Hayley rounded the corner.

"That was weird," Danny said to himself. "My ghost sense has never gone off around _her_ before. And she was acting really strangely, too. Something's up. I just don't know what."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

First and second period went by without much else in the area of paranormal activity. Danny couldn't find anyone else in his math class to give him the homework assignment, and spent second period trying not to care. By the time third period rolled around, he had convinced himself that it didn't matter in the long run, and that he was never going to use geometry outside math class anyway.

In the end, no one turned in their math homework.

Ten minutes into class, after the teacher had finished taking attendance, the students were taking out their homework for collection. Hayley, beginning at a whisper but getting louder and louder until she was yelling, repeated, "Shut up, shut up, shut up!" Her hands were clamped on her ears, her eyes closed. After about a minute of this, she stopped yelling and opened one eye, peeking at how many people had witnessed her little tirade. The entire class, including Danny, who sat two seats forward in the row next to hers, had turned around in their seats and were staring at her.

"Ms. Scott?" Mr. Binney, a grey-haired math teacher with thick-rimmed glasses and a surprising lack of tact, asked from the front of the classroom.

Hayley opened her other eye and removed her hands from the sides of her head, her face getting redder by the second. Her eyes, fixed on her desk, began to water.

"Ms. Scott," Mr. Binney continued, clearing his throat impatiently, "If you're quite finished, can we please get back on topic?"

This remark sent Hayley over the edge. She buried her head in her arms, which were folded on her desk. Her sobs could be heard by everyone, interrupted occasionally by laments of "Why me?!"

Mr. Binney, looking embarrassed and feeling bad, walked out from behind his desk and approached Hayley cautiously. "Now, now, Ms. Scott," he said awkwardly, trying to comfort her from a short distance. "Perhaps it would be best if you went home," He inched closer.

Suddenly, her shoulders began shaking violently and her sobs became wails punctuated by manic laughter. The air around her swirled and pulsed. Mr. Binney jumped back, sputtering, "Now, children, st-stay calm!"

Hayley threw her head back and a scream erupted from her throat. The surrounding air condensed and started turning a purplish color. Shrieking, the students and Mr. Binney clambered for the door. In a matter of minutes, Danny was alone with Hayley in the room.

Danny jumped behind Mr. Binney's desk, crouching there for a second to catch his breath. His ghost sense had been going off ever since Hayley entered the room, and it had gone berserk when this whole episode began. He peeked out at her. She was obviously exhausted. Her body was going limp as she lost the strength to even scream. Tears streamed down her face.

"Okay, that's more than enough," Danny said to himself. "Going ghost!"

Blue rings appeared at his waist and spread over his body, turning his street clothes into a black and white jumpsuit, his black hair white and his blue eyes green. Danny Fenton transformed into Danny Phantom, ghostly superhero, who floated up off the ground and hovered over the teacher's desk, eyes narrowed, poised to fight.

He saw Hayley, who looked like she was about to pass out, and he saw thin purple clouds enveloping her. And, for the first time, he heard voices, whispery and low, telling Hayley awful things. Telling her she was ugly, unwanted, worthless, that her life was pointless, meaningless, insignificant.

"Hey!" Danny yelled at the voices, "Didn't your mother ever tell you if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all?" Green spheres of ghost energy materialized in his palms. He hurled them at the clouds, but had to throw wide to avoid hitting Hayley. The holes they tore through the mist were repaired almost as soon as they were made.

"That's annoying," Danny muttered. "Oh well. Nothing the FentonThermos can't handle." As he reached to pull out the metal thermos, Hayley groaned. She was about to pass out any second. To Danny's surprise, the clouds slowed down and then dissipated, leaving Hayley limp in her seat, out cold.

"Well that was anti-climactic," Danny said as he made his way over to Hayley. He checked her breathing, which was shallow, and her heart rate, which was slow, but there. "Better get you to a hospital. The aerial route is fastest," Danny told her unmoving body, "I just hope you don't come to mid-flight." He picked her up and turned them both intangible, floating through the plaster classroom wall and rocketing towards the hospital.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

A buzz worthy of a beehive permeated Casper High for the rest of the day. Everyone was talking about Mr. Binney's eventful math class, and Hayley's spastic fit. It was rumored that she had epilepsy, that she suffered from schizophrenia, that she had ingested radioactive matter, even that all three had resulted in her violent outburst of tears and purple smoke. Students whispered and gossip flew from ear to ear until the entire school had heard some version of the story or another.

Danny heard it all, and was worried for Hayley. He contemplated it as he flew back from the hospital just in time for lunch. What kind of a reception would she receive upon returning to the halls of Casper High? She hadn't been an A-lister like Paulina or Star, but she was friendly and outgoing and had been kind of subtlety popular in her own way. Now that the entire school thought she was mentally ill, who would she hang out with? Who would talk to her? Who, thought Danny as he spied Sam sitting alone at their regular table, would she sit with at lunch?

"Um, hey," Danny said awkwardly, walking up to the table where Sam was munching on a garden salad. "I, uh… I wanted to…"

Sam lowered her plastic fork from her mouth. "Just spit it out so we can move on," she said matter-of-factly.

"I'm sorry I was kind of a jerk to you this morning," Danny spilled.

"Apology accepted," Sam replied. "Now, about Hayley. Is it true, what everybody's saying? That she had a major meltdown in the middle of math?"

"Yep," Danny set his tray down on the table across from her, pulling up a chair. "She started bawling, and then screaming, and then there was all this purple smoke, and then it was over." He summarized. "She had passed out by then, and I flew her to an emergency room."

"What did you tell the doctors?" Sam inquired.

"I told them she had an attack, which isn't entirely untrue," Danny explained. "She _was_ attacked. By… something. A paranormal something, I'm pretty sure. When I went ghost, I could hear all these voices telling her things, cutting her down… and the purple clouds were a pretty sure indicator that it wasn't just in her head. Something is trying to chip away at her, break her down. Maybe that's how it gains strength," Danny suggested.

"That sounds like Spectra," Sam pointed out. "Do you think she's back?"

"I don't think so," Danny ventured. "It's been following her for a while—a couple weeks at least. It seems to like going after Hayley one-on-one, and Spectra likes to spread the depression around. Plus, Spectra just sucked the joy out of our lives. This thing, it's making her more than miserable—it's driving her insane."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

The last bell rang, and Danny couldn't get out the doors of Casper High fast enough. It was stifling in there, all the rumors and half-truths filling the air with malice and spite.

He and Sam walked together until they reached her house. They said their goodbyes and she hopped up the steps to her front door, promising to research the new ghost in town. He nodded, waved, and walked on.

When he reached his own block, he stopped and thought for a moment. "I should check on Hayley," he decided, and instead turned down another street, taking a shortcut to the hospital.

He cut through a barren alley, populated by only a few cardboard boxes, trash cans, and the occasional rat. He was listening to the echo of his footsteps on the asphalt when he heard a large rattling behind him. He whirled around, blue mist escaping his lips, and saw one of the trash cans rock from side to side before falling over. Behind it crouched a girl with pale, ashen skin and long brown hair that turned a deep crimson at the tips. She stood, eyeing him nervously. Danny could see that she wore a gray minidress and a low-slung golden belt, all of which, including herself, were semi-transparent.

The sudden activity of his ghost sense, as well as the unusual translucence of the individual before him, led to only one conclusion.

"Great, _another_ new spook?" Danny assumed a battle stance. "I'm going ghost!" Again, blue rings of energy spread over his body, transforming him into Danny Phantom. He glared at the ghost girl, whose slight figure was tense with fear.

"You're new around here, aren't you?" He asked her, not particularly welcomingly and not waiting for her answer. "Let me fill you in. Any ghost messes with Amity Park, I mess with them. And since I doubt you're here for the Nasty Burgers—" Danny reached for the FentonThermos in his backpack. "—you're going back to the Ghost Zone."

"Wait," the spirit cried out in a soft voice. "I… I don't want to go back there. That girl… it wasn't my fault, what happened…"

Danny stiffened. Though he had been ready to suck her up in the FentonThermos simply for being a ghost, he hadn't thought she'd caused any serious trouble. She looked pretty harmless, like she should be haunting a shopping mall, or something. But she knew what had happened to Hayley. More than that, she knew he knew. She had to be the ghost behind the attack.

"You…" Danny glared at her. "It was you who attacked Hayley. She was an innocent girl and you invaded her thoughts, publicly humiliated her—"

"What? No!" The girl's eyes widened. "That's not it at all."


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Danny looked at the pallid ghost girl sideways, eyes narrowed. "You're telling me you're _not_ the ghost haunting Hayley?" he asked unbelievingly.

"No. I mean, yes. I mean, I'm not…" she trailed off miserably.

"Well, make up your mind! It's kind of urgent." Danny interjected, crossing his arms and tapping his foot impatiently.

"I'm sorry," she replied softly, staring at the ground.

"Sorry for what? Nearly driving a girl insane? I'm not sure an apology will cut it. Maybe if you wrote her a nice note—" snapped Danny sarcastically.

"I would never hurt her!" The spirit asserted, looking up at him defiantly. In a moment it had passed, and she stared at the ground once more.

After a few seconds, Danny replied, "Oookay. Then if you're not the spirit haunting Hayley, I'm gonna go find the one that is." He turned around and started walking in the opposite direction. "I'll be back to deal with you later."

"I know—" The girl called after him, stopping mid-sentence. She started again, a little softer, "I know I'm not the ghost you're looking for—"

Danny stopped in his tracks, a little chill running down his spine. He recalled using almost the exact same phrase some time ago, when he had a run in with the Guys in White involving Freakshow and the Reality Gauntlet…

"—but I might be able to help you find it."


	6. Chapter 6

"Who _are_ you?" Danny asked the tall, slim ghost facing him.

"My name— my name is Chara." She replied, stuttering slightly.

"Alright then, Chara, what'cha got?" Danny inquired briskly.

"W-what?" The brunette ghost asked, wide-eyed in confusion.

"What do you know? What information do you have on this spirit attacking Hayley?" he clarified.

Chara looked down. "Oh," she faltered.

"Well?" Danny demanded, his tone impatient.

Chara blurted out, "It's an entity, not a spirit," then gathered enough composure to murmur, "Spirits are harmless."

"There's a difference?" Danny asked, confounded with the idea.

"Yes, of course," Chara replied. "There are different kinds of ghosts. Entities are violent, evil ghosts who feed off of misery and strife. It's most likely that the presence haunting that girl—Hayley is her name?—is an entity. Phantoms look the most like humans, but have special ghost powers, like you. Spirits follow people but aren't disruptive in any way." She explained, softly adding, "Like me."

"I never knew," Danny contemplated. "Pretty much all ghosts looked alike to me."

"Looks aren't everything," She said knowingly. "I would have thought, being half ghost yourself, you would have realized that. Let's go check on the girl in the hospital first, if you don't mind." The slightly transparent girl beckoned him to follow her through the alley.

Silence followed this exchange as Danny mulled over what she had said. He remembered a time, many months ago, when Plasmius had trapped him in a ecto-proof box. He had been freed by another ghost, the spirit of the Dairy King. Despite his red eyes and green skin, he had shown Danny kindness.

_Not all ghosts are evil, dont'cha know…_

The two reached the end of the alley, and, nodding to each other, lifted off the ground and flew together towards the hospital.

Danny shook himself out of his thoughtful stupor and addressed his ghostly companion. "So, if you're harmless like you say, what brings you to Amity Park?"

"Um, well," Chara started quietly, once they were headed in the right direction, "The people."

"You know someone from around here?" Danny asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No, not exactly," She replied, ducking a cloud. "I watch people. Humans, I mean. It's kind of my thing."

"You mean like, you haunt people? Follow them around? Isn't that kind of creepy?" Danny asked, the question rhetorical.

"I don't mean to be," Chara said defensively. "And it's what I'm good at. The people I watch can barely notice my presence. I've refined my intangibility and invisibility, and honed my stealth so that I can go unseen. Plus, I can read people's minds." She touched her hand to her mouth, as if wishing she could force her last sentence back down her throat.

Danny stopped short. "You can read people's minds?!" He asked incredulously. "But how'd you learn to do that?"

Chara shrugged, introverted once more. "I just concentrated. Every day." She said modestly. "I didn't have much else to do. The inhabitants of the Ghost Zone, as you call it, aren't exactly the most thrilling subjects to observe. All they think about is world domination, and hunting, and stuff. Actually, most of them are really insecure," She confided. "And no one really paid me much mind. Everyone was always too busy talking about Ember. Ember-this, and Ember-that—" Her tone became mocking and her face twisted into a grimace.

"Whoa, wait—Ember? As in Ember McLane?"

"Yeah," She said matter-of-factly, "She's my older sister. She always gets all the attention, just 'cause she can play guitar and she's evil…"

"But…" Danny frowned confusedly. "You're not evil?"

"No," Chara replied slowly, as if speaking to the village idiot. "I told you, different ghosts want different things. I just want to see people go about their lives. And to become a member of the Observant High Council someday, but they probably won't accept me. Just 'cause I'm not a green blob with one giant eye in the middle of my head…" She rambled resentfully. Danny's mouth remained agape from his rapid enlightenment of a few moments ago.

"Sorry if I'm boring you," Chara blushed. "I don't think I've talked so much in my whole life."

"No, not at all," Danny said truthfully. They touched down to Earth in back of the hospital, and he smiled at his companion, who shyly smiled back.

He changed into the Fenton kid, and she turned invisible. "Lead the way," Her melodic disembodied voice told him. He made his way to the front of the hospital and entered, the large automatic doors sliding closed behind him.


End file.
